


Hold On, One More Time With Feeling

by myrifique



Category: Community
Genre: Gen, post-ep: 2x10 Mixology Certification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-03
Updated: 2010-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-13 12:38:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrifique/pseuds/myrifique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Britta tries to patch things up. Post-ep for 2x10, <em>Mixology Certification</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold On, One More Time With Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, if you'd told me the first thing I would write after this splendid episode was Britta and Abed friendship fic, I'd have been surprised too. The heart wants what it wants. This was unbetaed and written at midnight because I couldn't sleep, so, yeah. Title from Regina Spektor's _One More Time With Feeling_.

On Saturday, Britta wakes up, blinks at the sun in frustration, and thinks about going back to sleep. She doesn't. She gets out of bed and grabs two aspirins, downs an orange juice with it. Steals a look at the clock: 11am. Late enough, she’s not going to wake him. She gets in her car and goes.

When she knocks on his dorm room door, Abed is staring into space.

"Can I come in?" she asks.

"Sure," he answers, not really looking at her. The TV is looping the menu of some sci-fi TV show.

She sits down beside him. "Abed, I wanted to apologize about yesterday. I'm sorry that Jeff and I made out right in front of you, and acted like you weren't there. It was wrong of us, and we shouldn’t have done that. Alcohol is no excuse."

"Apology accepted. I'm kind of used to it."

"Okay. Thank you," Britta answers. She’ll deal with the second part of that answer later, she figures. He's still not looking at her. She tries to see if there's anger, or sadness, or anything at all in his face. He mostly seems far from her, even if they're sharing the couch.

"Abed, are you all right? I've been a little worried about you lately," she says, as gently as she can.

"Of course, I'm fine." He answers mechanically.

"Okay. You know you don't have to say that just because it's what people always do, right? You can tell me how you really feel." She's taking the tone she often takes with him - half motherly concern, half like trying to talk to a very slow child. She hates herself for it a little bit.

"I know. I tell you guys all the time, I don't really get feelings."

"I know that." Abed finally turns to look at her. They're quiet for a while, Britta smiling as nicely, as non-pushing-ly as she can.

"I'll tell you, Abed, what it seems to me that you're feeling," Britta says slowly, trying to use a lot of "me"s and "I"s. "It seems to me that you're feeling anger, at not being able to feel much. And sadness at the loneliness that it brings you."

Abed tilts his head, considering. He doesn't talk for a while. Britta tries to calm down, quieting the headache she feels coming.

"I guess that's true," he ends up saying, quietly. He's looking at the blank TV again. "But that would imply that I do have feelings. I'm not sure what it does to my characterization."

"I wouldn't worry about that," she half-smiles. She reaches out, a hand on his shoulder. He looks back at her.

"I don't want to talk about it, though," he says.

"That's fine."

"Do you want to talk about you and Jeff?"

"You know what, I really don't."

"Okay." It's a weird conversation, stilted, full of pauses. Britta doesn't feel awkward, though, trying her best to let Abed guide everything. She feels a little overwhelmed by how happy she suddenly is to have a friend like him, and how guilty she was when Troy looked at her sternly as he dropped her home. She just really, really doesn’t want him to feel like he’s invisible. Like he’s a coat rack.

"Do you want to make a movie about it?" Britta jokes. Abed laughs a bit as he shakes his head, and she's relieved. She sits back on the couch, her head almost on his shoulder. "Do you want to watch something?" she says, pointing at the TV.

"I always want to watch something. The question is, do you?"

"Sure! TV is a good hangover buddy, I've found."

"Okay. What do you want to watch?"

Britta thinks about it for a while. "I like Buffy," she finally says. He pops out of the couch, considers his DVD collection, grabs one. He sits back down with what seems like super-speed to her sluggish morning-after mind. She sets her head down on his shoulder, holding his arm. Buffy fights some Native Americans at Thanksgiving. Buffy gets fake-engaged to her mortal enemy. There’s an episode where nobody speaks, and Troy arrives during that one. He sits down on the other side of Britta, like it’s natural. They end up kind of tangled when Annie shows up, everyone trying to out-cuddle the others.

They watch until the end of the season - Abed makes sure to skip the bad episodes. Britta tries to mention every little thing she’s thinking about the show. She listens happily as Abed launches into tirades in return. Annie falls asleep, her head on Britta’s knees; Troy brings her a blanket she’s pretty sure she saw in the Turkish district. The day passes slowly, softly.

When she comes in the study room on Monday, Troy and Abed are talking excitedly about something that sounds suspiciously like “Britta, the Vampire Slayer”. Britta thinks _And we’re back_ , and smiles.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Birthday Boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/425325) by [eldritchbirds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbirds/pseuds/eldritchbirds)




End file.
